A REVISION OF THE STAPHYLINID^ OF AUSTRALIA. 



By a. Sidney Olliff, F.E.S., 

 Assistant Zoologist, Australian Museum. 



Part III. 



Sub-Family III.— STAPHYLININ^. 



Protlioracic stigmata conspicuous, sometimes hidden by a corneous 

 plate. Antennae 11-jointed, inserted upon the anterior margin of 

 the epistoma. Mandibles furnished on the inner side with a 

 membrane which is partly free. No ocelli. A membranous space 

 underneath the prothorax. Abdomen strongly margined laterally. 

 Anterior coxai large and conical ; the posterior sub-conical. t*os- 

 terior trochanters prominent. Tarsi 5-jointed, except in Tany- 

 gnathus which has only four. 



This subfamily contains the largest and most brilliantly coloured 

 members of the section, many of which are eminently predatory in 

 their habits. Xantholinus and the allied genera are composed of 

 very long and narrow species, and the true Staphylinina mostly of 

 more robust forms ; of the latter Greophilus, Actinus, Mysolms, 

 and the species which I have characterized under the name 

 Colonia regalis, are the most conspicuous types. 



The different species are found under stones, under bark, in 

 carrion or any decaying animal or vegetable matter, in moss, and 

 occasionally in ants' nests. To the third tribe of the subfamily 

 belongs the curious parasitic species Qmdius dilataius, which is 

 found in Europe living in hornets' nests, but no species with 

 similar habits has yet been detected in Australia. 



